Nsn

Ratio is up for discussion but something to reduce current prices would be nice.

Yep these were done naked. Was just a quick test and thought the DPM results were interesting.

I didn't include animation to simplify things a little. With searing full charge you are trading some DPS for DPM.

I did some math on this server and thought i'd share. Some interesting notes: Searing (both short casted and full casted) is both one of the best DPS and DPM (Damage per Mana) skills in the game. You should use this over flame bolt or harpoon as much as you can. Stigma skills such as Flame Spray and Glacial take a huge hit in DPM on their last 1~2 upgrades for only minor DPS boosts. I recommend not using the most upgraded versions of these skills, but the 2nd best upgrade as you will have a better mix of DPS and DPM that way. There are exceptions to this of course, like if you usually play with bard/sw and not concerned about mana. Wind Cut Down does surprisingly well here, I thought it was worse, but it's actually a decent skill. That damage did not include the bleeding effect either.

Agreed; removing tempering all together would be ideal, but having easy access to tempering (and it doesn't really matter how) would result in casuals being able to reach BiS status. If they were cheap via ecoins they would be cheap in game, or if they dropped more plentifully in-game that would work too.

And that is why this server will fail, just like retail, if it stays true to retail 100%. It's common sense: same input, same output. I think we can all agree that NCsoft made some poor design decisions throughout the history of this game and it is silly to not identify and address them. Not to mention a lot of us are older now and have full-time jobs and don't have the time to farm to the highest gear ceilings like we may have used to.

I have played this game for a very long time. There are people who will farm BiS then get bored and quit. You can keep them around for longer with a higher gear ceiling but they are not sustainable -- all of those players will quit. Back in 2.0 days we didn't need a high gear ceiling to give us a reason to play. We all had max gear. We PvPed for fun. If someone wanted to start playing Aion, it was very easy to get into it. All they had to do was run a little crucible for a basic 55c1 crucible set and if they learned their class well they could give the ABG/GBG people a run for their money. And the result? VERY populated servers, arguably the most populated Aion would ever be post-release. Compare that to 4.0, someone with green manastone blood mark gear does not stand a chance against someone with AP augmented, tempered gear. The grind to fair, competitive PvP is MUCH higher in 4.0 compared to 2.0. And the result? Everyone started quitting. Just FYI I would be thinking about 10Ecoin tempering solutions.

Thank you for your response. I wonder how the community would then feel then for cheap tempering solutions on the game shop.

My suggestion is very simple; remove the ability to receive tempering solutions on this server. 4.x started the trend of very high gear ceilings and it drives new players away. No one wants to get 2-shotted over and over again by a max gear, max tempered, +10 plume person while trying to farm BM gear. You cannot fight back and it overall just takes away from the experience. The grind of getting best-in-slot gear, +15, and full blue manastones is more than enough in terms of character progression for this game. Tempering just hurts the casual players. I have played this game since version 1.5 and I know for a fact that the most active PvP this game has ever seen was when the gear ceiling was much lower (version 2.5 to 3.0) -- as soon as the gear ceiling was raised significantly (blue manastones, plumes, tempering accs), was when PvP became less about skill and more about gear, and many people quit.

Hell no. I will vote for no events ever.

No it's not. The game and all of its assets, from version 1.0 to current, is valid NCsoft intellectual property and all of it is subject to IP laws. It only really gets dicey when a private server is hosted in a country that doesn't recognize intellectual property law. Yes it's a bit arbitrary. The more buzz around private servers without any action on their part, the amount of liability they incur, and I guess they drew the line @ EuroAion release.

No, they are contractually obligated to take action against private servers who operate in their jurisdiction. If they did not, NCKorea could sue them for breach of contract.

No it is not and instead of ganking lowbies maybe you should try fighting people who actually want to fight you back.

I use Rainmeter just fine.

You give away so much PvP def for that MS though, I don't remember the math but I would be surprised if AC was really any better than standard pvp gear. If mythic armour trading scrolls come into play though you may be able to get IO cloth gear? 3 ancient slots.